The IT storage world is experiencing an AI revolution, leading to a greater need for data storage, delivery to AI models, and enhanced data protection. This shift also brings challenges, including the risk of data mishaps and deliberate attacks enhanced by AI.
Since the release of ChatGPT 44 months ago, the storage sector has seen an irreversible move into the AI era. This has spurred technological advancements to provide fast data access to GPUs, impacting NAND and SSD suppliers, flash array vendors, and the HPC world.
The traditional enterprise storage array market, previously dominated by Dell, HPE, and NetApp, is now encountering new, rapidly growing vendors such as DDN, Pure Storage, VAST Data, and WEKA. These companies are advancing parallel data access, disaggregated storage array designs, and the use of unstructured data for analytics and AI-focused data lakes.
AI's influence on storage is evident in five key areas: providing data for AI, protecting AI data and actions, extending cyber-resilience to govern AI data access, using AI in storage operations, and protecting storage from AI-driven attacks.